Find Out Why More People Are Smiling When They're Driving a Volvo

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When I brought home my first Volvo, a ’58 PV444, I didn’t noticed how uncomfortable the seats were. After I drove from Torrance to my Aunt and Uncle’s home in Livermore  – about 300 miles – I couldn’t wait to get out of that car. I later bought a seat back cushion (a small coiled wire with cloth covering) that helped air circulate and gave me a little more back support, but it was still an uncomfortable journey. I did find the adjustment for the seat back, a small 10mm screw in the bottom of each seat fame side – clever but not practical – and there wasn’t any lumbar support.  When I started at Volvo, out back behind our warehouse was a 164 that was accident damaged. I ‘borrowed’ the light tan leather front seats and threw away those ’58 back breakers. It was kind of hard to close the doors, but boy those were comfortable seats. So what happened between ’58 and ’68?

Volvo’s newly installed (1956) President Gunner Engellau, killed the P1900 fiberglass convertible, which was terrible to drive, had poor brakes, and guess what, rotten seats. He sensed that while we made good cars, except P1900, we really didn’t understand seat design. In the following years there were minor improvements to seat back and cushion design, but everything would change when he hired Doctor Ulf Nachemson who was a spinal specialist (thanks Bob for finding this) to work with Nils Bolin to teach us how to build good seats. Basically it was not rocket science to designing a comfortable seat, just ask someone who knows bones, how best to support our back, and you’ll have a great seat.  I think aside from giving the world a three-point seat belt, Volvo’s next great accomplishment was to put a lumbar adjustment in seats.

Then again, here’s what USA Today’s automotive editor Jim Healy’s wrote in his 2009 C30 review:

The seats. You can’t talk about a Volvo without championing the seats as probably the industry’s most comfortable. You gotta wonder why all other automakers don’t simply copy ‘em.”

**As seen on the Volvo Blog Website article by Dan Johnston; for more information, please visit Volvoblog.com.